El Toro Wins Share of South Coast

The Lake Forest El Toro boys’ basketball team, ranked No. 17 in the Southland by The Times, rallied from a two-game deficit with two games to play this week by defeating host and No. 12 Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, 59-52, on Thursday night to earn a share of the South Coast League title for the second consecutive year.

Last season, El Toro had a two-game lead with two games to play but lost both and ended up in a three-way tie for first with Capistrano Valley and Mission Viejo. The same scenario failed to play out when No. 18 Mission Viejo, which had defeated Capistrano Valley on Tuesday, lost at Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills, 54-53, Thursday night.

El Toro (22-4, 8-2), playing without three-year starter Darryl Best, who was ruled academically ineligible this week, kept itself in the game by making 11 of 25 three-point shots. The final three-pointer came from Tyler Gottstein and gave the Chargers a 51-42 lead with 2 minutes 26 seconds remaining.

El Toro guard Shon Waite made five of seven three-point attempts and scored 20 points, and teammate Kelvin Kim made four of eight three-pointers and scored 18.

Matt Ankeny led the Cougars (23-3, 8-2) with 19 points.

Dan Arritt

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In girls’ basketball:

Brea Olinda 58, Placentia El Dorado 38 -- With a share of a 23rd consecutive league championship already clinched, fifth-ranked Brea Olinda extended its state-record league winning streak to 184 games over 19 seasons with a Century League victory over No. 23 El Dorado(23-3, 8-2).

The game hardly resembled the teams’ last meeting, which went down to the final minute before Brea pulled out a 49-46 victory. El Dorado led, 7-2, before Brea (21-5, 10-0) scored 24 of the next 30 points.

Martin Henderson

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Newhall Hart 73, Valencia 62 -- The seventh-ranked Indians made a season-high eight of 11 three-point shots to clinch the outright Foothill League title, the third in a row and 12th in 13 seasons for Coach Dave Munroe. Ashlee Trebilcock scored 23 points and KaLana Inemer 16 for visiting Hart (24-1, 10-0), which won a school-record 20th consecutive game. It was also the Indians’ 21st league victory in a row.

-- Dave Desmond